Good Man

So the word for illustrationfriday.com this week is "afterwards". This is a book cover (front and back). The story is about a family that is murdered by a criminal on the loose. I wanted to hide as many things in this piece as I could (the butterfly, which is found in the back cover instead of the front, the hand, the arm, and the idea). This scene on the cover is at the end, where the (spoiler!) grandmother dies.

My concept is "something good that can come out of something bad". In the story, the grandmother is portraiyed as a terrible person, but right before she is shot she demonstrates some goodness in her, so I chose to show that concept through color and the way I composed things. The hat is supposed to look like a halo, and the cropping of the arm is symbolic of the crucifixion pose. Dead leaves are well... pretty self explanatory. I decided to hide the arm by making the front a road and flattening it out (suggested by Alexi Fisk). I thought it was a great idea so I ran with it.